Persuasive Paper Instructions:
– Formulate and articulate a clear thesis concerning any subject matter of limited relevancy and shallow impact. I’m interested in your ability to construct a compelling argument about a discerningly select topic of personal interest, not your ability to echo well-worn talking points about a grave topic of global or national significance, along with all the prepackaged arguments and counter arguments that invariably come along with it. Instead, for example, you might write a paper about why socks should never be worn with boat shoes or why waffles are an objectively better breakfast choice than pancakes.
– Shape your text around proving this thesis.
– Incorporate at least three sources in your argument. These sources may be self-conducted interviews, self-conducted surveys, pop-culture blogs, podcasts, entertainment magazines such as Rolling Stone and Vice, and television interviews.
– Include internal citations and a works cited page.
– You need not write toward any particular page count or word count. Instead, write toward your objective: creating a compelling argument.
– Format the final draft in MLA style.
Sample Writing:
The Ideal Analogue
Record labels have produced analogue recordings in a number of different formats for more than a century. A few of the most popular and enduring options include 7-inch 45 rpm records, 10-inch 78 rpm records, and 12-inch 33 rpm records. To a lesser extent, record companies have matched these sizes and speeds in other ways—and one of these options, the 10-inch 33 rpm record, provides listeners with the ideal form of analogue audio.
The 10-inch record offers an appealing type of tactile solidity simple unachievable with a foot-wide disc. The 10-inch possesses the character of a hardback book compared to a monthly magazine—or the 12-inch record. As purely aesthetic as that quality may seem to some listeners, the records size also does offer a practical advantage: collectors of 10-inch records can use a far wider range of book or improvised shelving options to safely house their record libraries—and shelving records matters more than some casual collectors may realize. In Kathleen Harrison’s article “Caring for your LP Records,” on the American Library Association’s website, the writer explains that for best preservation, records should ideally rest vertically on shelves that can support fifty pounds per foot of shelf and that include full-height dividers every six inches. Many bookshelves can nearly satisfy this standard for 10-inch records, but shelves that facilitate hundreds or thousands of 12-inch records can present the owner with a comparatively difficult search—or a costly custom build.
The 10-inch record represents an iconic history that predates other modern record sizes. Companies pivotally positioned this format in the emerging record industry to the extent of influencing how some early recording artists considered and approached their own original work. According to one of Susan Stamberg’s reports on NPR’s Morning Edition, “The Roots of Audio Recordings Turn at 78 RPM,” even artistically renowned musicians like classical pianist Igor Stravinsky and jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong shaped composition to fit the 78 rpm 10-inch. Listeners consequently associate the 10-inch record with some of the first classical recording and—more often—the foundational forms of jazz, blues, and rock n’ roll that informed decades of popular music.
At the customary 78 rpm, however, the 10-inch record moves far too fast to facilitate any more than two single songs, one on each side—hardly a combination that could contend for the ideal form of analog audio. Here enters the value of the atypically paired size and speed. At 33 rather than 78 rpm, the 10-inch record allows musicians to preserve this historic format while still offering listeners roughly 15 minutes of music on each side, which means the album will provide the better part of a thirty minute experience—a length that demands a sense of focus from the artists that encourages quality. This length coincides with the short and intense live sets that The Guardian’s music blogger, Caroline Sullivan, explains that influential bands like The Ramones and The Jesus and Mary Chain favored and consciously developed. This length of performance and record allows the listener enough time to walk away from the turntable and settle into the music—but not long enough for the listener to lose interest.
Some listeners may reasonably argue that the 12-inch 33 rpm record offers more music and bigger album art. These listeners, of course, present quantitatively true points. The 12-inch offers more space, musically and visually. More space, however, does not necessarily mean a better experience. The association of “more” and “better” likely stands strong as a result of a culture over-consumed by the simple-minded pursuit of size and speed.
With these factors in mind, the 10-inch record paired with a 33 rpm recording speed offers the listener a combination of qualities unmatched by any other form of analogue audio. The record’s size alone offers both aesthetic and practical advantages, while also preserving a more historic format than either the 7-inch or 12-inch record. And when paired with 33 rpm recording, the 10-inch provides just the right amount of music on each side—enough to keep the artists deliberate with their extended selections and the audience connected to their listening experience.
Thoughts, Revised & Refined 